7 p.m. Public comment; joint meeting with the Steamboat Springs Rural Fire Protection District to discuss current coverage, growth on the west side of Steamboat, staffing issues and more

Photo by Matt Stensland

Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue Lt. Michael Arce trains with other firefighters Monday at the Mountain Fire Station. The firefighters were using a foam that Arce said is useful for fighting fires in rural areas where water has to be trucked in. The Steamboat Springs City Council will host a joint meeting with the Steamboat Springs Rural Fire Protection District tonight to discuss current coverage, plans for proposed development west of Steamboat Springs, staffing issues and more.

Steamboat Springs  Seven days after the Steamboat Springs City Council approved vast revisions to the city's inclusionary zoning and linkage ordinance, which regulates how the city provides affordable housing, council members tonight will reconsider a key provision of the ordinance.

City Council President Pro-tem Steve Ivancie said Monday he placed a "motion to reconsider" on tonight's council agenda, regarding a fee-in-lieu policy that allows developers to pay the city instead of providing affordable housing units required by the inclusionary ordinance.

Ivancie voted for the fee-in-lieu policy June 5, when the City Council approved it with a 4-2 vote spurred late in the evening by Councilman Towny Anderson. Council members Ken Brenner and Karen Post voted against the fee-in-lieu policy, which Brenner at the time said "makes no sense" and would drastically reduce the city's ability to acquire actual affordable homes, rather than payments.

Council members are allowed one week to place a motion to reconsider on an agenda, and only if they voted opposite of what they would like to reconsider. In other words, because Ivancie voted for the fee-in-lieu policy, he could put a reconsideration of it on the agenda - Brenner and Post did not have that option.

Ivancie said he filed the agenda item to give City Council President Susan Dellinger and the public a second chance to review the decision, which was made after 10 p.m. Dellinger was absent June 5.

Ivancie did not say Monday whether he plans to change his vote.

"Oh, I don't know yet," Ivancie said. "I just think we need an opportunity to discuss it a little further. I want to give everybody an opportunity to take a look at it."

Should the City Council vote tonight to reconsider the fee-in-lieu policy, Ivancie said, a future date would be set for that discussion. No action on the policy itself will be taken tonight, he said.

Anderson said he expects the policy could be reconsidered because it applies to all of Steamboat, including downtown.

"Payment in lieu was intended to address the base area, and it may well be that that's what people are working to revert back to," Anderson said.

The entire inclusionary zoning and linkage ordinance will be effective Wednesday, June 20, because the City Council tabled action on associated housing guidelines until the council meeting June 19.

Tonight's council meeting begins at 5 p.m. in Centennial Hall on 10th Street. The agenda also includes a joint meeting with the Steamboat Springs Rural Fire Protection District to discuss issues including current fire coverage, future growth and a possible new fire station on the west side of Steamboat.

Apparently they got together and decided that they didn't have any plan to sucessfully spend fee-in-lieu funds to further their goal of giving away housing on the mountain and didn't want to be accountable?

Doesn't this group realize that NEITHER the "affordable" candidates or the monied supporters of the local economy have NO desire to live side by side?

Isn't is obvious that lending support to a plan to develop rentals and lower priced homes on the west end would be a lot more productive than trying to lay all the burden on the very developements that drive the economy?

Is this council ever going to realize that trying to legislate utopia is impossible and that the free market is really the only long term solution? Here's reality: Socialism ALWAYS FAILS!